Dental care month

 February is pet dental care month, and as I'm not really have the knowledge of cats and other animals, I need to talk about dogs!

80% of all dogs over 3 years have dental problems, that is a lot, I don't exactly know how many dogs are wandering the globe, but in 2020 there where 1,5 milion dogs  in the Netherlands, and approximality 75 milion in the USA, so we talk loads of dental issues.  

Dental care is very important, altough sometimes not that much fun. And to be honoust, years ago I would just leave the teeth to their own, and yes the dogs did have smelly breath. Brushing teeth, it just was not what I did. And I do think it is still what loads of people don't do.

But why is it important. Think about it, in the middle-ages people would die at a very young age, and why? because of teeth problems. And it does make a lot of sense, if you don't take care of your teeth and gums, tartar will build up. Tartar did never kill anyone, however the gums would become inflamated, the gums will pull back, and then bacteria's and other interesting stuff can make their way to the bloodstream.

Then things get pretty nasty. Those bacteria's that go in the bloodstream have this very nice idea of making inflammations on the heart valve. A healthy body is capable to fight the inflammation, but there will always be a supersmall scar tissue, scar tissue always shrinks a bit so a minor defect on the heart valve is a fact.

Ofcourse when that happens a few times, your dog has a heart disease, and that is not what we all want for our furkids. 
These inflammations also have a tendency to go to kidneys. The kidney story is even more terrible and I want to spare you that one. (When my teacher told me the kidney story, I got nauseous)  

So what we can do. Well brushing, it is the best way. I talked with my vet about this, because I really disliked it, it gets better now, as it will become a habit.
But before that became a habit I made huge mistakes.  

The last few years the Himalayan yak bones where getting very popular for cleaning dog teeth. It is some kind of a very very extreme hard cheese, made from yak milk. Dogs love it, really all my dogs where crazy about those. And 1 of my dogs had the cleanest teeth, I was really exited. This was the magic, and it saved me brushing.

Well it turned out pretty bad, because a few of my dogs are really enthousiastic gnawers. And one day after chewing on a yak bone for 15 minutes one of the girls had a molar, loose in het jawbone.
I was devestated as she already had a molar that looked not so great ( I promise that will be another post) so now she had her P1 (the teethcode) and it was loose, and within a week it was out.

As you can imagine I never wanted to give bones anymore, so I needed to look for different options. So brushing it is. 

Current toothpastes 

The dogs have to get used to handling their mouth, I'm very fortunate that because I do conformation, I start checking teeth at a very early age. And the AFP toothpaste has the taste of peanut butter, and vanilla. That is a big plus, I have not ever met a dog that did not like the flavour of peanut butter.

AFP Tootpaste met Vanilla Ginger Flavor

AFP Sparkle Finger tandenborstel, 6 stuks

Orozym Toothpaste Gel

I do think the Orozym is the better one, as it has active enzymes, but I like to treat my doggies with the tasty toothpastes.

Dental care is something I'm very keen on now, so I will try and make more posts about this subject. As it is a subject that is sometimes neglected and so super important. 

And on the picture you see my girl Leia, who was supposed to posing with the toothbrush, she had other ideas with it.